Dr. Thomas Smailes (1849-1915)

His son, Thomas, became a local councillor and was the Mayor of Huddersfield from 1946 to 1947.

Biography

He was born on 13 March 1849[1] in Northamptonshire, to Wesleyan minister Richard Smailes and his wife Jane (née Green), the oldest of their ten children.

He studied medicine in Leeds, becoming a M.R.C.S (Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons), and was appointed the medical officer to the Honley district in 1875.[2] He was also appointed the medical officer of South Crosland shortly afterwards.

He married Esther Mason on 19 April 1876 at the Wesleyan Chapel, Pickering, Yorkshire, and they settled at Town Head, Honley, where he worked as a surgeon and medical practitioner.

He was the chairman of the Honley Local Board during 1889 to 1890, but his attempts to improve the sewers and river water quality in Honley were reportedly blocked by other board members, who then voted him out.[9] However, he was able to contribute at a conference held in June 1891 to discuss steps that could be taken to improve the quality of the River Calder.[10]

Despite what had happened previously, he was voted back into the role of the Local Board chairman in 1892 and then re-elected unanimously the following year.[11] By the end of 1894, it was reported that the efficient new drains had been laid in the village.[12] He was re-elected chairman again in January 1895 and held the post until 1899, after which he became the vice-chairman.

In September 1894, Dr. Smailes was one of several "of the most influential men in Honley" who supported an application to the Brewster Sessions for the opening of an off licence in Honley. It was argued that the township had "a population of close upon 6,000 inhabitants, and there was no place in Honley at which people desiring to obtain beer in small quantities could do so" other than at a public house, where there was a risk of then drinking to excess. The application was turned down.[13]

By 1895, he had become a Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Honley.

He retired to Hawthorne House in Honley.

Esther Smailes died on 17 February 1911, aged 60.

Thomas Smailes died on 24 June 1915, aged 66, and was buried on 26 June at St Mary's Church, Honley, alongside he wife.[14]